Art Basel Miami Beach 2023: All the Can't-Miss Events and Exhibitions

It’s nearly impossible to get through Art Basel Miami Beach and all the surrounding affairs without feeling exhausted and a bit overwhelmed by the end of it. That’s as guaranteed as the endless glasses of free champagne. But there’s nothing worse than going through all of it and feeling like you missed half of everything that was worth seeing. Here, a rundown of all the events and exhibits not to miss this year at Miami Art Week

The Fairs

Art Basel Miami Beach

Open to the Public December 8th-10th

1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139

The main event returns to its usual sprawling location, with a plethora of booths helmed by 277 top galleries from 34 countries. Highlights of this year’s presentation include a new series of photographs by Texas Isaiah at Residency Art Gallery’s booth, new work by a crop of David Zwirner artists, including Wolfgang Tillmans and Lisa Yuskavage, and fresh-from-the-studio pieces by Ghada Amer at Marianne Boesky. There are several up-and-coming galleries joining the Basel fray this year, including New York’s 56 Henry, Vito Schnabel and Deli, as well as L.A.’s Château Shatto. Also among the 25 first-time exhibitors are galleries from Egypt, Iceland, the Philippines, and Poland—keep an eye out for them amid the usual power players. More eye candy of note: Louis Vuitton is unveiling its latest accessories collaboration with Frank Gehry at the fair, in a space that showcases the maison’s ongoing relationship with the architect.

More information here.

Untitled

December 6th-10th

12th Street and Ocean Drive

The satellite fair Untitled will once again be held at its billowing tent on the beach with exhibits from ambitious independent galleries around the world. The multidisciplinary program includes conversations with industry leaders from The Bass and the de la Cruz Collection, panels on curating in the digital age, and a performance series curated in collaboration with the New York arts nonprofit 99 Canal. On opening day, the exhibition space will be enlivened by performances by Alexa West, ms. z tye and Mayfield Brooks.

More information here.

NADA

Open to the Public December 5th-10th

1400 North Miami Avenue

The annual fair put on by the New Art Dealers Alliance continues to be a premier hub for discovering new talent. The 21st edition of NADA Miami returns to Ice Palace Studios, just across the bay from the hubbub on South Beach, with a lineup that includes strong group shows at Harkawik, EUROPA and Hesse Flatow’s booths, as well as a plethora of artist talks.

More information here.

Around Town

Hernan Bas: The Conceptualists

Opening December 4th

The Bass Museum, 2100 Collins Ave, Miami Beach

If Timothée Chalamet were elected president, Hernan Bas would be the obvious choice to paint his official portrait. For 25 years now, the artist has depicted his typically lithe (dare we say “twinky”) male subjects lost in both contemplation and in seas of neon-flecked backdrops that at times see fantastic and other times nightmarish (they’re often inspired by the artist’s native Florida, and what is Florida but a neon-flecked nightmare scape?). He’s also arguably the most important Miami-born artist of his generation, and he takes his thrown with a solo show held at the Bass Museum. The show will include 35 paintings from his ouvré, including his largest to date.

More information here.

Gagosian and Deitch’s Forms

December 5th–10th

Miami Design District, 35 NE 40th Street, Miami

American power galleries Gagosian and Jeffrey Dietch maintain separate booths at the convention center, but for the eighth year in a row, they’re joining together for a pop-up exhibition in the Design District. This year, they’re pulling shapes. Well, “Forms” in art lingo. It’s a meditation on the area between pure abstraction and strict figuration, focusing on objects and shapes meant to evoke the human, but just aren’t quite. Expect works by Ai Weiwei, Tauba Auerbach, Carol Bove, Judy Chicago, Urs Fischer, Theaster Gates, Albert Oehlen, Nari Ward, and more.

More info here.

Charles Gaines, Tau Lewis, Ahmed Morsi and Sasha Gordon at ICA Miami

December 5th onwards

61 NE 41st Street

The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami always leads the Art Week conversation with a thoughtful clutch of solo shows spread across their modernist headquarters in the Design District. This year’s lineup includes a showcase of 30 years of work by the conceptual master Charles Gaines, an installation by the sculptor Tau Lewis, a series of paintings by the Egyptian modernist Ahmed Morsi, a photo mural by Anne Collier, and the first solo museum show for the contemporary surrealist painter Sasha Gordon.

Marjan van Aubel x Lexus

December 5th onwards

61 NE 41st Street

Meanwhile, in the ICA’s courtyard, Lexus has commissioned the first ever public installation by Dutch solar designer Marjan van Aubel. Titled "8 Minutes and 20 Seconds” (that’s the amount of time it takes for light from the sun to travel to Earth), the instalation is inspired by the form of Lexus’s LF-ZC electric vehicle concept car, and will use light and motion sensors to provide an interactive element.

Katie Stout: Olympia at Nina Johnson

December 4th-January 6th

6315 NW 2nd Avenue

Katie Stout’s fourth show with Nina Johnson showcases the artist and designer’s colorful talents on a larger-than-ever scale. On view are playful bronze, glass and ceramic pieces that draw inspiration from Stout’s transition into motherhood and her new life in the countryside (both of which you can read more about here).

More information here.

Spinello Project’s Gay Era

Begining December 4th

At Spinello Projects (2930 NW 7th Ave, Miami) and Elsewhere

Spinello Project’s Basel Week programming is queer, and this year it’s everywhere. Fanning out across the city to present five different solo shows at three separate locations (including its own gallery, Swampspace, and the Positions section of the Art Basel fair) all representing queer expression. Barnaby Whitfield, Giorgio Celin, and Juan Arango Palacios can be found at the gallery, young Puerto Rican painter Esaí Alfredo’s work will take up the Basel booth, while works from the late artist Adolfo Rene Sanchez, which take influence from telenovela dramatics, will be shown at Swampspace in the Design District.

More information here.

MAZE: Journey Through the Algorithmic Self

Beginning December 5th

Behind the Faena Hotel Miami Beach, 3201 Collins Ave, Miami Beach

In something that’s both a child’s dream come to life and a comment on the power of AI, Chilean designer and artist Sebastian Errazuriz is constructing a maze meant to look like sand directly on the beach as part of ‘Spaces of Influence,’ Faena Art’s public programing. Errazuris designed the maze’s layout using AI tools, and all paths lead to a communal space in the center. "This is the first maze designed not to get lost, but instead to find ourselves,” he says in a press release.

More information here.

Laurie Simmons, Autofiction

Opening December 7th

YoungArts, 2100 Biscayne Blvd. Miami and Christian Louboutin, 155 NE 40th St, Miami

Laurie Simmons stans will have a nice excuse to catch some extra eye candy while eyeing her latest work in Miami. Her exhibit “Autofiction” will be housed in the unique Jewel Box building on YoungArts headquarters in mainland Miami (the building’s facade is a stunning stained glass mosaic), while a special extension of the work will be exhibited in the windows of Christian Louboutin’s Design District store (Louboutin is also sponsoring an apprenticeship program with Simmons through the foundation). Though, Simmons herself created the work with some browser windows on her computer. She trained ChatGPT’s Dall-E algorithm in an attempt to reconstrue the aesthetics of her earlier creative work.

More information here.

Jayaram’s Making Miami

December 6th through 26th

75 NE 39th St, Miami

For the people who have braved the bathroom at Churchill’s, once put together their American Apparel finest for Poplife or Revolver, and bought vinyl at Sweat Records’ original location, this is the show you’ve been waiting for. For those to whom those words mean absolutely nothing, this is your invitation to familiarize yourself with an era of Miami’s hometown art scene that helped assert the city as something more than just the art fair’s backdrop. Expect works by FriendsWithYou (who have since become Pharrell favorites), Jen Stark, TM Sisters, Naomi Fisher, Daniel Arsham’s Snarkitecture and more.

More information here.

Alex Israel’s Snow Beach Frozen Treats

December 6th and 7th

1111 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach

Down in South Florida but missing the gastronomical pleasure of South California? Artist Alex Israel has you covered. He’s drawing on inspiration from his 1980s Los Angeles childhood to present two nights of pop-up dining experience in collaboration with Capital One and The Cultivist. Michelin-Star Chefs Dominique Crenn and José Andres will be handling one night of dining each. The public will be able to access the space on Friday afternoon from noon until three p.m.

Tickets are available here.

Sukeban

December 6th at 10pm

325 NW 2nd St, Miami, FL 33128

You have to hand it to the organizers of this event for putting on something Miami Art week hasn’t seen before: professional wrestling (at least we think there’s never been professional wrestling, you never quite know). Sukeban is a newly formed all-female Japanese wrestling league, and they’re bringing the action to Wynwood. Like all good Basel-adjacent events, there are some art and fashion collabs in store. Olympia Le-Tan designed the costumes, Isamaya French will do the brawlers’ makeup, and designer Marc Newson created the championship belt in collaboration with Ayako Ishiguro.

Tickets available here.

BLESS, Backfrontal (for Fendi)

December 6th through the 10th.

At Design Miami/,

Convention Center Drive & 19th Street, Miami Beach

This year, Fendi has trusted Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag’s design studio Bless to reinterpert the house’s story in their own way for a collaboration featured at Design Miami/. The results include a broom made out of repurposed fur scraps and objects that on one side are covered in “Wallscapes” full of images of Fendi-related spaces, but on the other are functional pieces of furnitures.

Morris Lapidus My Home

Beginning December 5th

The Ritz Carlton South Beach, 1 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach, FL 33139

Everyone knows South Beach’s iconic Art Deco architecture, but locals may be more proud of Miami Modern, the distinctive design that characterized buildings built in the area in the '50s and '60s. Morris Lapidus was one of the movement’s undisputed masters, applying the style to several iconic hotels that still define the city today, including the building now known as the Ritz Carlton South Beach. To celebrate both the 70th anniversary of the building (originally known as the DiLido hotel) and the 20th of the Ritz, the hotel will exhibit items from Lapidus’s personal collection borrowed from the nearby Bass Museum, including his artwork, personal furniture, and never-before-seen design plans.

FLEX – to bend: Jeremy Pope in Conversation with Tarell Alvin McCraney

December 8th at 2:00 pm

Scope Art Fair, 801 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach

You might know the actor Jeremy Pope from Pose, Hollywood, and the play Ain't Too Proud, but in his spare time he’s also become something of a consummate photographer with a passion for visually documenting his family, his Florida hometown, and his experience as a Black gay man in America. In the past, he's shot his father, his grandfather, and his grandmother; but in his latest project FLEX(bitch), Pope has created a photojournalism series that captures themes of manhood, masculinity, and self-love. Through original imagery and a smattering of childhood photos, the artist examines internalized homophobia, love, and his journey to find himself. The work will be exhibited as part of this year’s SCOPE art fair, and Pope will sit down with playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight) for a conversation. —Maxine Wally

Find more information here.

Shopping and Art at Celine

Ongoing

154 NE 41st St

As if the latest batch of Triomphe bags wasn’t enough of a draw, the newly revamped Celine boutique in the Design District features a just-installed, museum-worthy collection of contemporary artwork. As you browse the racks and consider which candle to add to your holiday shopping pile, take a moment to peruse the abstract paintings by Simone Fattal, two copper snake sculptures by Elaine Cameron-Weir and a ceramic work by Antonia Kuo, among others.

Gaetano Pesce’s “Again In Miami With Multidisciplinary Works”

December 4th through 10th

30-40 NE 40th St, Miami

At 84, architect and designer Pesce is as in demand and relevant as ever. The “Again” in the show title is no mistake. This year’s exhibition showcases work from across his career, but particularly emphasizes new, never-before-seen works.

Cartier Time Unlimited Exhibition

December 7th-22nd

45 NE 41st, Miami

For those who prefer to get lost in wearable works of art, there’s Cartier Time Unlimited—a fully immersive exhibit that presents the jeweler and watchmaker’s over 175 year history in craftsmanship. You can expect all the covetable classics to be on display—think the Tank, Baignoire, and Panthère de Cartier—as well as short films including Time Project a piece made in collaboration with global brand ambassador Jake Gyllenhaal.